SC Malaysia To Regulate Offering and Trading of Digital Assets

There has been a lot of speculation recently on what stand Malaysia is going to take as far as cryptocurrency and digital exchange setup is concerned.

On 14th Jan 2019, Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) put up a post on their website following the statement by YB Lim Guan Eng (Minister of Finance) on the coming into force of the Capital Markets and Services (Prescription of Securities) (Digital Currency and Digital Token) Order 2019, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) will put in place guidelines to regulate offering and trading of digital assets.

The guidelines will among others, establish criteria for determining fit and properness of issuers and exchange operators, disclosure standards and best practices in price discovery, trading rules and client asset protection. Those dealing in digital assets will be required to put in place anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML / CFT) rules, cyber security and business continuity measures.

“So basically, what the guidelines is intending to do is to wade off bad actors and maintain some law and order in the country. With the coming into force of the Prescription Order, the offering of digital assets, as well as its associated activities, will require authorisation from the SC and compliance with relevant securities laws and regulations.”

In order to implement the regulatory framework on digital assets, the SC and BNM will enter into coordination arrangements to ensure compliance with laws and regulations under the purview of both regulators. The relevant regulatory framework is expected to be launched by end-Q1 2019.

In My Opinion

And this is just my opinion, any legal framework is good. It shows acceptance of digital currencies as well as blockchain technology that powers it. But in order to get more players in the market, I hope they (SC and BNM) won’t make things too tight or controlling as they they have done with the regular financial and banking framework.

If you’re read Satoshi’s peer-to-peer whiepaper, then you’ll also understand digital assets like Bitcoin and blockchain were designed to bypass any third party control and not have a middleman. But I guess to some extent if we want to see massive growth and mass adoption of cryptocurrency in the world, the laws need to be relaxed a little so to get as many players to join the space and make it more vibrant. Regulations are important but too stringent laws may just hinder the bigger players to come in and invest.

I'm a serial entrepreneur and a true advocate of decentralizaton & digital currency. I'm motivated to break the norm and shelf the conventional. I love to write and teach. I've spoken in many local and global events and I've moderated many panel discussions. I'm available to speak in a meaningful event.
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